Details Books Toward The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

Original Title:	The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
ISBN:	1400078679 (ISBN13: 9781400078677)
Edition Language:	English
Setting:	New York State(United States)
Literary Awards:	Audie Award for Nonfiction, Unabridged (2005), New York City Book Award for Book of the Year (2004)

The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America Paperback | Pages: 384 pages

Point Based On Books The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

Title	:	The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
Author	:	Russell Shorto
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 384 pages
Published	:	April 12th 2005 by Vintage (first published January 1st 2004)
Categories	:	History. Nonfiction. New York. North American Hi.... American History. Historical

Commentary In Pursuance Of Books The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

When the British wrested New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, the truth about its thriving, polyglot society began to disappear into myths about an island purchased for 24 dollars and a cartoonish peg-legged governor. But the story of the Dutch colony of New Netherland was merely lost, not destroyed: 12,000 pages of its records–recently declared a national treasure–are now being translated. Drawing on this remarkable archive, Russell Shorto has created a gripping narrative–a story of global sweep centered on a wilderness called Manhattan–that transforms our understanding of early America. The Dutch colony pre-dated the “original” thirteen colonies, yet it seems strikingly familiar. Its capital was cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic, and its citizens valued free trade, individual rights, and religious freedom. Their champion was a progressive, young lawyer named Adriaen van der Donck, who emerges in these pages as a forgotten American patriot and whose political vision brought him into conflict with Peter Stuyvesant, the autocratic director of the Dutch colony. The struggle between these two strong-willed men laid the foundation for New York City and helped shape American culture. The Island at the Center of the World uncovers a lost world and offers a surprising new perspective on our own.

Rating Based On Books The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

Ratings: 4.14 From 7786 Users | 867 Reviews

Critique Based On Books The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

Pilgrims and turkeys dominate youthful stories of our countrys founding. Adults regularly hear the truism that Puritanism imbues our culture with strict moralism and inflexibility (and probably nod in agreement). Always we hear of the stalwart British, fighting to control the continent, winning perhaps because they were the most upright. And so we have come to regard our history, written as usual by the victors.Russell Shorto begs to differ. The Island at the Center of the World seeks to

When a very intelligent, perceptive gentleman of good local family recommended this book, I immediately put in an order for it. There's nothing that appeals to me more than local history, and this is local history on only a slightly broader scale. The Dutch settlement of the colony of New Amsterdam is a little known facet of American history. Recent discovery and translation of the many documents produced by that colony has shed a new light on this early settlement, revealing the vibrant

This book is about Manhattan Island under the Dutch in the 1600's. I was interested because we have ancestors who were there, and also because I like to discover history that has been left behind in the standardized anglocentric history that we learn in school. (I'm still a bit upset that we didn't learn about the Spanish in Santa Fe before the Pilgrims got to Plymouth--but then they didn't speak English.) The Dutch colonies were quite interesting and they planted in America some very different

Sometimes we read for total pleasure and escape. Sometimes we read because we want to learn something. Sometimes we read because weve promised a dear friend we will support her book discussion at the local library even though wed never select the book for ourselves.Island at the Center of the World falls into the last category, but as I told my dear friend today when I arrived for the discussion, Im very glad I persevered and read this.If goodreads.com werent forcing me into full stars, Id give

I picked up The Island at the Center of the World because it directly targets two of my own personal obsessions: New York history and Dutch language. Author Russell Shorto builds it upon thirty years of translation work by a man called Charles Gehring, a specialist in 17th century Dutch who resurrected the complete records of New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement that is now New York City and environs. Shorto's thesis is that the Dutch colony was more successful and more influential than

Interesting and well written. Not a page turner as such, but glad I read it. Cool to connect with the modern day experience of living in NYC.

Russell Shorto has written a dense, but mostly readable and utterly fascinating history of Manhattan and Dutch history in the 17th century based heavily on colonial New Netherlands documents which remained untranslated (and mostly overlooked by historians) until recent decades, in a translation project that is ongoing. Thanks to Shorto for an illuminating portrait of Adriaen van der Donck (among others) and van der Donck's era in both Europe and America. His writing sheds light on the special